-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueWhat's Your Sweet Spot?
Are you in a niche that’s growing or shrinking? Is it time to reassess and refocus? We spotlight companies thriving by redefining or reinforcing their niche. What are their insights?
Moving Forward With Confidence
In this issue, we focus on sales and quoting, workforce training, new IPC leadership in the U.S. and Canada, the effects of tariffs, CFX standards, and much more—all designed to provide perspective as you move through the cloud bank of today's shifting economic market.
Intelligent Test and Inspection
Are you ready to explore the cutting-edge advancements shaping the electronics manufacturing industry? The May 2025 issue of SMT007 Magazine is packed with insights, innovations, and expert perspectives that you won’t want to miss.
- Articles
- Columns
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
The Need for Speed
October 6, 2015 | Stephen Las Marias, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 1 minute

I was recently invited to judge the editor’s choice award at National Instrument’s 2015 NI Engineering Impact Awards—ASEAN Regional Contest. This is my second time judging the annual technical applications contest. The awards aim to showcase the most innovative projects using NI hardware and software, and it’s amazing to see the projects submitted by the academe and industry professionals that are designed for various industry applications—from autonomous vehicles to flexible control systems for car engines, to automatic generation control modules for microgrid applications and real-time localization systems. There were also projects on energy harvesting, reliability improvement for stamping machines, power supply sequencing, EDA memory characterization, and PCB connectivity testing.
There was one project that I found relevant to our topic for this month’s issue of SMT Magazine, which is cycle time reduction. Developed by Gatepacific Circuits Inc. (GCI) for a client, the project aimed to improve the process of dispensing paste compared to the manual process done by human operators, and increase the unit per hour (UPH) capability from 500 units to more than 1,000 units. The project incorporated pin location and visual inspection with motion and pneumatic controls to provide fast and accurate dispensing, effectively doubling the manufacturing yield of a human operator.
For this particular project, GCI integrated the NI LabVIEW Vision Development Module and the CVS-145xRT with a slider electric actuator, two card motors, a gripper, and two air dispensers (EFD Ultimus), to develop an automated air dispensing system that inspects multiple pins in the target unit, applies paste accurately on these pins at a rapid rate, and performs vision inspection for uniform dispensing quality. Overall, the machine tool increased the UPH as well as offered better quality of paste dispensing by transitioning from manual process to an automated process.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the October 2015 issue of SMT Magazine.
Suggested Items
Techcon Launches New Side-By-Side Dispensing Cartridge Line
06/12/2025 | TechconTechcon, part of OK International and Dover, and a global leader in precision fluid dispensing technologies, today announced the world-wide launch of their new line of Techcon Side-by-Side (SBS) Dispensing Cartridges.
Axxon-Mycronic Showcases Precision Protection Technologies for Extreme Environments at Space Tech Expo
06/02/2025 | Axxon-MycronicAxxon-Mycronic, a leading, global supplier of innovative and production-ready, dispensing and conformal coating systems, is pleased to announce its participation at the Space Tech Expo USA 2025, taking place June 3-4, 2025 at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. Axxon-Mycronic will be exhibiting in Booth #552.
Axxon-Mycronic to Showcase Advanced Coating, Dispensing, and Backend Solutions at IPC APEX EXPO 2025
02/19/2025 | Axxon-MycronicAxxon-Mycronic, a leading, global supplier of innovative and production-ready, dispensing and conformal coating systems, to announce its participation at the IPC APEX EXPO 2025, taking place March 18-20, 2025 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Rehm Thermal Systems: Future Technologies for Coating, Dispensing and Vapour Phase Soldering Live at IPC APEX EXPO 2025
02/04/2025 | Rehm Thermal SystemsIPC APEX EXPO 2024, which takes place from 18 to 20 March at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, is the largest and most important trade fair for electronics manufacturing in North America.
Axxon-Mycronic Wins JABIL’s Strategic Supplier Award for 2024
01/20/2025 | Axxon-MycronicAxxon-Mycronic, a leading, global supplier of innovative and production-ready, dispensing and conformal coating systems, is proud to announce that it has received the prestigious 2024 JABIL Strategic Supplier Award.